More than Hot Air

Jerry's Blog

Three Biggest Mistakes When Choosing a New Commercial HVAC

Finding the right heating and air conditioning system for your business requires achieving balance.

If you’re looking for a new heating and air conditioning system for your office or another place of business, you want to choose the right one. But how do you do that? The first thing you can do is avoid the following mistakes:

Mistake #1: Getting an HVAC Unit That’s Too Big

Assuming you have the funds to do so, you might think that buying the biggest commercial HVAC system available is the best course of action. If a 20,000 BTU air conditioner can adequately cool your business, a 40,000 BTU air conditioner must be twice as cold or cool twice as fast, right?

Theoretically, it’s possible, but you don’t want an oversized HVAC system. This is because an oversized system will turn on and off too frequently. This “stop and go” running adds unnecessary wear and tear to the system. It also makes it harder to achieve even heating or cooling. This can cause discomfort and humidity issues in your building.

Mistake #2: Getting an HVAC Unit That’s Too Small

Just like having an oversized HVAC system is bad, so is an undersized system. It won't save money in the long-run because an undersized system will have to run constantly. This will reduce the life of the HVAC unit and may result in higher energy usage than a properly sized system.

Mistake #3: Buying a Less Efficient Unit to Save Money

Generally speaking, the more modern an HVAC system, the more energy efficient it is. You might decide to install an older, cheaper system to save a few bucks. But this is usually a shortsighted mistake. A less efficient system will result in higher energy bills each month. Over the course of a decade or two, those extra dollars can really add up and exceed the money you "saved" buying a cheaper, less efficient HVAC unit.